


Dreams Diverged

by FictionPenned



Category: Bridgerton (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:35:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29267331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FictionPenned/pseuds/FictionPenned
Summary: Daphne and Eloise are both idealists, though they wear the mantle in incredibly different ways. Their hearts and minds are full of lofty ambitions, and they cling to them as tightly as any young woman in their circumstances possibly could. When they were children, their dreams and desires were much the same. Such yearnings used to revolve around sweets and giggles and gossip, however, in recent years, their paths have diverged.
Relationships: Daphne Bridgerton & Eloise Bridgerton
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Dreams Diverged

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rosabelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosabelle/gifts).



Daphne and Eloise are both idealists, though they wear the mantle in incredibly different ways. Their hearts and minds are full of dreams, and they cling to them as tightly as any young woman in their circumstances possibly could. When they were children, their dreams were much the same. They revolved around sweets and giggles and gossip, however, in recent years, their dreams have diverged. Daphne and Eloise are both idealists, though they wear the mantle in incredibly different ways. Their hearts and minds are full of lofty ambitions, and they cling to them as tightly as any young woman in their circumstances possibly could. When they were children, their dreams and desires were much the same. Such yearnings used to revolve around sweets and giggles and gossip, however, in recent years, their paths have diverged. 

Daphne dreams the dreams that are expected of her. She longs for love and a good marriage and a house full of children. 

Eloise, on the other hand, dreams the dreams that are denied to all women. She dreams of ink-stained fingertips and published lines of her work and a certain degree of infamy. She wants her name to be spoken in hushed voices when women gather in their parlors, each of them pretending that they do not admire her work and her spirit as much as they secretly do. She wants to travel. She wants to hitch her skirts up and wade through swamps and cross mountains and ford the English channel. 

And unlike those who seek to weigh her down and bring her feet back in contact with the earth, Eloise truly believes that such dreams lie within reach, if only she dares to lean out and grab them. 

Sometimes the two sisters squabble -- fighting about whose ideals are the better ones, which life is truly a life worth living -- but in the end, they always find peace in the fact that they are different people, and they need not always have the same values. 

One evening, they brush shoulders at a ball. Daphne is being the perfect example of a newly married duchess, resplendent in a gown the same color as a freshly cut sprig of baby's breath. Eloise, on the other hand, has her nose to the grindstone. Her worn leather journal, full of thoughts and idle scribbles, is tightly grasped between her gloved hands, and her eyes are scanning everyone in the room, counting both those people who are present and those who are absent, desperately trying to piece together who might be Lady Whistledown. 

"Dear sister, have you yet danced with anybody?" Daphne asks, meaning well but sounding lofty. 

Eloise barely listens, and she most certainly does not register the contents of the question. She answers with a noncommittal hum.

Daphne is less than pleased. Beneath the gauzy layers of her skirt, a delicate shoe strikes the ground with a small stomp. "Eloise! One must ask what the point of finally making your debut must have been if you insist on avoiding all of the men in society. You are the sister of a duchess, and you ought to behave as such."

This time, Eloise rips her attention away from the swirling crowds and her obsessive counting long enough to eye her sister with scoffing disbelief.

"There are, in fact, a great number of reasons why a young woman such as myself might want to enter society, Daphne, none of the least of which being that I cannot possibly hope to solve the mystery behind Lady Whistledown if I am not present at the events upon which she reports."

Upon closing the tirade of an explanation with a pointed sniff, Eloise immediately turns her attention back to the crowd, resuming her silent tabulations. 

Daphne's lips part incredulously, and it takes her several minutes to regain the ability to speak.

Though Daphne knows that she perhaps ought to continue to berate her sister -- that it part of her duty to remind her that there are opportunities being squandered -- she cannot help but be amused. The explanation was so distinctly Eloise, that despite her prevailing good sense, Daphne cannot help but feel a familiar fondness stirring in her belly. 

After a long moment of basking in that fondness, allowing it to grow and blossom into the recollection of all of the silly things that they have done at each other's side over the long, long years, Daphne begins to find herself being swept away by the rising tide of laughter. It is an entirely undignified laugh, the sort of full-bodied affair that ends in snorts and fits of breathlessness, something that she thought she left behind her once she stopped being a silly little girl and started being a dignified woman, but even though there must be curious heads turning in her direction and judgmental whispers passing behind raised hands, she simply cannot seem to stop. 

Eloise can be utterly ridiculous at times, but that is precisely why Daphne is so fond of her. It tickles her fancy and sparks so much joy that it is entirely overwhelming. It begs to be felt, to be sung about, to declare its presence by way of fits of giggles so bright that tears start to sting the corners of Daphne's eyes. 

Eloise is momentarily alarmed at the laughter, but once the shock passes, she, too, finds herself joining in. 

Though the sisters' dreams diverged as they got older, they are still joined at the hip by blood and history and habit. They move closer into each other's orbits, leaning their giggling heads together, clinging desperately to each other's arms as their shared, roaring laughter takes the evening in its grasp. 

Perhaps this is not an evening for dancing or investigating or looking towards the future after all, but an evening for sisters to accidentally remind each other of the warmth and comfort that can be found in family. 


End file.
